Author : Jeffrey P. Schmall
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781303540530
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (45 download)
Book Synopsis Position-sensitive Solid-state Photomultipliers for Small-animal PET by : Jeffrey P. Schmall
Download or read book Position-sensitive Solid-state Photomultipliers for Small-animal PET written by Jeffrey P. Schmall and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The current generation of small-animal PET systems are being successfully used to understand a wide variety of biological problems, however the limitations in what can be visualized and quantified are readily apparent. The achievable spatial resolution of small- animal PET systems continues to be dominated by the detectors themselves and not by physical effects of positron decay. Prospects of new detector designs using solid-state photomultipliers (SSPM) have recently become available and the goal of this research was to understand the improvements detector designs utilizing SSPMs could bring to the field of small-animal PET. The dissertation work focuses on a new SSPM design, created in collaboration with Radiation Monitoring Devices, Inc. (Watertown, MA), which we refer to as the position-sensitive SSPM (PS-SSPM). The device is manufactured using a complementary-metal-oxide-semiconductor technology, and was designed and optimized for maximum spatial resolution.Two novel large-area PS-SSPMs were evaluated - at the time of production they were the largest area SSPMs ever manufactured - a continuous 10 mm x 10 mm, and a 2 x 2 array of 5 mm x 5 mm PS-SSPMs, both devices covering 1 cm2 area. Application specific electronics were developed and readout strategies were implemented for both large-area detector designs. The detectors were first optimized for operating bias voltage and temperature using a signal to noise analysis developed by our lab group. Their performance was then compared in terms of energy resolution, timing resolution, and spatial decoding ability. It was found that for ultra high spatial resolution applications the 2 x 2 array of 5 mm PS-SSPMs performed much better. Detector designs using a dual-ended readout of high resolution scintillation arrays were then evaluated. Scintillation arrays, composed of individual crystals of dimensions 0.7 mm x 0.7 mm x 20 mm, could be resolved at all depths and a depth of interaction resolution of 3.1 mm was measured; which if translated into a PET system would represent a large improvement in both spatial resolution and sensitivity, compared to current generation systems.